OpenAI, the San Francisco-based artificial intelligence company behind the ChatGPT chatbot, is facing a rapidly expanding wave of legal action alleging that its technology played a direct role in two mass shootings in North America. Thirty new complaints were filed in a US federal court in California's northern district on Wednesday, joining seven initial suits filed in April — bringing the total number of cases related to the Tumbler Ridge shooting alone to 37. The company also faces a criminal investigation and civil lawsuit stemming from a separate mass shooting at Florida State University.

The February shooting in Tumbler Ridge, a small town in British Columbia, Canada, left eight people dead and more than 25 wounded, most of them children, making it one of the deadliest mass shootings in Canadian history. Authorities say that 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar killed her mother and 11-year-old brother at home before travelling to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and opening fire on students and staff. She died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The new lawsuits, brought by lead attorney Jay Edelson, include cases on behalf of a 13-year-old who played dead after watching classmates and a teacher be killed, a grade seven teacher who sheltered with students under her desk, and the family of a girl who was shot. The suits accuse OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman of negligence, aiding and abetting a mass shooting, and product liability.

At the heart of the lawsuits is the allegation that OpenAI's own safety team had flagged Van Rootselaar's account to senior executives eight months before the attack, describing her in internal messages as